A RUNAWAY teenager stole a nine-ton dumper truck, smashed through metal gates and drove it through the centre of Ruthin, a court heard.

At Prestatyn youth court the 16-year-old from Flintshire pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and driving without a licence and without insurance.

Prosecutor Karen Mullin said that the boy and another teenager who were pupils at a special education unit had been with two carers at the Tesco store in Ruthin on April 5 but ran away after a row when one of them started smoking.

The carers called in the police. In the early hours of the following morning one of the carers saw the teenagers travelling along Lon Parcwr on the dumper truck.

The truck was driven the wrong way around a roundabout, colliding with a road sign before heading for the town centre and eventually a public car-park in Dog Lane.

When the police arrived the truck stopped and the two were arrested. It was found that the vehicle had been taken from IT Williams’s yard on the Lon Parcwr industrial estate and the 16-year-old said they had spent two hours driving forklift trucks around the site, all of which had the keys in them.

Ms Mullin said the damage to the metal gates to the compound, which had been locked, was estimated at £1,000.

She told the court since April, 2011, the youth had convictions for 11 offences including burglary, criminal damage, threats to kill, affray and reckless arson and had been subject to a curfew at the time.

Jim Humphreys, defending, said the boy had been in care since the age of two.

The youth was remanded in custody until May 4, for a pre-sentence report.